GAIA Supperclub — Restaurant in Washington

It was late, and my friend and I were walking by and noticed this place. I went up to the doorman who was quite nice and informative

The place was aesthetically pleasing. The music was nothing special, was a bit strange, like elevator or mall type, but I overlooked that as its not a nightclub setting.......However the reality of the place reared its ugly head minutes in. We sat at the bar to get drinks, and it took forever for someone to even pay attention to us and serve us. Finally, a gentleman with a nose ring was walking back into the bar and asked if we had been served. We said no and gave him our drink orders. My friend ordered wine, and I ordered a cocktai. 15 minutes later, still no drinks. The restaurant was not full whatsoever, but we remained cool and patient. The gentlemen kept passing us, and we gave him time to make or delegate drink orders. We even watched him make other people's drinks who came after us or who were around us. Eventually, we realized he had forgotten us. My friend was able to flag down a busboy at the bar, and even when the busboy tried to get the gentleman's attention by tapping him and talking to him, he was ignored by him. The busboy laughed it off and said he couldn't hear him and that he is not listening to him. We finally got the gentleman's attention, and I told him he forgot us but still was respectful and smiled with him about it. He never apologized he just put his hands over his head and verbally repeated our order, we said yes that was correct. He picked up a dirty glass and gave it away to the busboy. He picked up another glass it was wet. He then found a cleaner glass, poured the wine out, gave it to my friend, and then walked away. I still had no drink yet as mine had to be made. I waited and waited again. Even after realizing he forgot my drink order, he still never made my drink. U would think that after such a mistake and to cause no further delay, you would make my drink right away and then go back to making other drinks. He even went back to having conversations with other people. I was not a priority at all despite the waiting. At that point, my friend had almost finished her wine. We tried to reach out to the ladies working the bar, and even they didn't even acknowledge us until I displayed my disappointment. I was completely turned off and the vibe was killed. A lady worker behind the bar asked what did I order when i told her we had been waiting a very long time. I said did not want the drink anymore, its ok. She still tapped another young lady who was making a drink. I asked that other young lady was that my drink she was making, and she said no. I was completely done at that point. Then...... here comes my drink out of nowhere, handed to me by the same lady who said it wasn't my drink that she had been making. My friend had finished her wine already a little while before. My friend said it looked like my drink had been sitting there in a shaker on the bar counter but I didn't see. Either way I waited wayyy too long for that drink. It was a $21 drink without the additional fees and I was willing to pay but not for that kind of service and treatment. They even charged more for my friend's wine than the menu price. They acted like I was begging to spend my money in there. After all of that long wait, mistreatment, and inconvenience, the drink should've been offered complimentary. Ignoring customers is mistreatment. I dont know what any of the bar staff's problem was. Pretentious? Lack of skill? I don't know. But definitely poor customer service skills. My friend said she heard the gentlemen who initially took our orders say he was the bar manager very arrogantly to someone else. If so, it's truly pathetic that someone like him could be a manager, and he doesn't need to be doing this. Gave this place a shot, but it's never again. I didn't even eat there, but based on my experience, I never will. The reviews and low rating say it all. It was appalling to say the least. Actually shocking. The doormen were quite pleasant and...

Last week, I went to Gaia with two of my friends for a girls' night out; three total. We had a reservation and were seated right away. The waitress came over quickly to take our order, and she was really nice. Since it was our first time there and I'm a foodie, we decided to try a bunch of dishes: calamari, wings, lamb chops, lobster and shrimp bites, sliders, octopus, Brussels sprouts, and drinks. One of my friends ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, but they told her they didn’t serve it. We were totally shocked! I mean, in all my years of going to different places, I’ve never encountered a spot that doesn’t serve Long Island Iced Tea. That’s just crazy! It took a while for the food to arrive. The calamari was just okay, nothing special, and the wings were the same. The octopus was chewy, but it had more flavor than the calamari. Honestly, Lumina at the Wharf has way better octopus. The shrimp and lobster bites were super bland. The lamb chops were pretty good. The sliders came out cold! We sent the sliders back and waited for fresh ones. We kept enjoying our evening, and when the sliders finally came back, they were still lukewarm and not hot at all! After a bit, a woman approached our table and just started chatting with us about how everything was. She didn’t even introduce herself! She was leaning over our food, and I really dislike when people talk over my meal! Then she told us we had to leave because there was a time limit. They didn’t mention that when we sat down. It wasn’t just what she said, but the way she said it that really bothered me. Keep in mind you have to talk loud because the music is blasting in the background. I told her the food wasn’t great, and the sliders were cold and had been sent back. Thus attributes to us being there longer than usual. Honestly, I don't even know if we were there for two hours because I wasn't checking my watch and it didn't seem like it. A good manager or owner who cared about the food and service would have apologized and realized that the reason we were there for over two hours was because their kitchen wasn’t getting the food right. A real manager would have gone back to the kitchen to see what was going on.

She leaves, heads back to a booth hanging out with people she knew. We proceed to order another round of drinks. She didn’t walk around the restaurant to check on other customers. After a few minutes, she returns. At this point, I am really annoyed. I reminded her again about the food. At this point we received the bill and the bill was just under $600, yet she keeps mentioning a time limit! She has completely lost her mind.That is the most absurd thing I have seen in a long time at a restaurant. I don’t care about the price, but let’s be honest, we only ordered appetizers and one main dish. This isn’t a 5-star establishment. When I spend that kind of money for small bites, I don't expect management to continue to beat the customer down about leaving. I told her I would never come back. The music is excessively loud. Either you want to be a restaurant...

My husband and I went on Saturday, 4/3 for a date night. This place seriously needs some training.

PROS: -The ambiance is very nice in the establishment, it has potential. -The dj and the saxophone player was nice. My strawberry lemon drop was good.

CONS: -Did not get water until after we received and ate our appetizer

-The waitress did not know anything about the menu, drinks, etc and she would go ask and disappear for a while. I get it, when a place is new, you are not going to know everything but she could not answer simple questions.

The waitress would go missing to the point where you couldn’t order anything because she would be gone for 15-30 mins at a time.

-The seating is extremely crowded, the seats and tables are right on top of each other. The seating arrangement is just too crowded and they try to stuff too many people together.

My husband kept getting the waiters butt in his face when they would serve the next table which was frustrating him because he couldn’t be comfortable.

The tables are so close you can hardly squeeze in to get in your seat.

Ordered the Calamari for an appetizer, sent it back because the breading was mushy, and the calamari was extremely chewy as if it was not quite done and it was not hot.

We switched it out for the salmon lollipops which were good but they were not hot, more so warm.

-The Hookah doesn’t start till 10pm but it is through a 3rd party vendor, and it starts at $90. Quite expensive for a place that does not have good service. If the service was great, we would have ordered the hookah but since we were already having a bad experience we were nervous to spend any additional money at the establishment.

The table to the right of us left because the service was horrible and asked for a manager and the table to the left of us has horrible service as well.

-A host came up to our table after about an hour sitting and asked us did we have reservations, which we did for 830 and asked our name which was weird. I’m not sure if they forgot to mark us down as being there but the approach could have been better because it left us confused.

We ended up speaking to the manager because after more than 2 hours of sitting there, we didn’t even get asked to place our dinner order and at that point we were too nervous to eat any more of their food and decided not to eat dinner there anymore.

After all of this, we were offered 50% off our check by the manager and they still charged us for calamari that we did not eat and sent back but at this point we were ready to just leave because the service was absolutely horrible.

I typically give places grace when it comes to being new but this was something I’ve never experienced before EVER. I would not come back to this...